1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a garment shaped to conform to the contours of and thermally treat body parts and, more particularly, to a garment lined with a thermal element and a self-adhesive sheet-like gel layer forming a garment inner surface to directly contact and thermally treat the skin and/or a wound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various gel-like materials are known to have properties that promote the healing of wounds such as severe burns. Sheet-like wound dressings having a self-adhesive layer formed of a gel material have been used to treat skin wounds by placing the gel material in direct contact with the wound. These dressings are secured to the wound via adhesion of the gel material to healthy skin surrounding the wound. The gel materials are typically tacky to the touch and readily adhere to the skin, but are easily removed from the skin without significantly pulling the skin or disturbing or clinging to newly formed tissue at the wound site, and leave no perceptible residue. These gel materials tend to manage fluids seeping from the wound in a manner conducive to healing and can be used to deliver additives, such as anti-microbial agents, to the tissue of the wound to prevent infection. In effect, such gel layers operate to seal the wound and function as a synthetic skin.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,099 to von Bittera et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a self-adhesive sheet-like structure having a support layer and an adhesive polyurethane gel layer which adheres to the skin and leaves virtually no residue when removed. The sheet-like structure can be used as a wound dressing in which a gauze bandage is held in place on the wound by the polyurethane gel layer that adheres to the skin surrounding the wound. On dry wounds or wounds having only slight discharge, the polyurethane gel layer can be adapted for use in direct contact with the wound by chemically altering the gel to increase its absorbency.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,801 to Cartmell et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a multi-layer burn dressing having a hydrogel material layer that is placed in direct contact with the burn site on the skin. The hydrogel serves as a bio-compatible, bacterial protective, fluid absorbing, cushioned skin-like medium that facilitates the healing process.
Silicone gel sheets have also been applied directly to damaged skin to treat burns and scars, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,574 to Pocknell, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In particular, silicone gels have been found to prevent keloid and hypertrophic scaring at wound sites and to reduce the visibility of existing scars. Such silicone gels are manufactured, for example, by Applied Silicon Corporation.
The aforementioned gel dressings are universally produced in flat sheets, with the gel material layer typically being secured to at least a substrate layer providing structural integrity to the dressing. One problem with such dressings is that, while these flat sheets are generally pliable and can be molded to a degree to conform to skin contours, such flat sheets have a limited ability to cover highly contoured skin surfaces of the body (e.g., the face, the scalp, the neck, the shoulders, the hands, the complete torso and/or upper body and arm(s), the complete lower body and/or leg(s), bent elbows and knees, hips, ankles, and feet). Consequently, these sheet-like dressing are generally most suitable for covering only a limited skin area. Further, due to their sheet-like shape, these dressings cannot generally form a secured enclosure to envelop a body part and therefore must rely almost exclusively on the adhesion of the gel material to remain secured to the body.
To cover highly contoured portions of the body, it would be necessary to cut pieces of the sheet dressing to suitable sizes and shapes, and to cover the wound in sections with plural dressing pieces. The set of individual dressing pieces might imperfectly cover the wound, and the cutting and application of customized dressing pieces would be time consuming and would make rapid application of the dressing virtually impossible. Further, this cumbersome operation would have to be performed each time the dressing is changed.
Burn dressings that are shaped to conform to certain portions of the body have long been known in the field. These dressings typically employ conventional wound-contact materials that are absorbent and permeable to fluid and air, such as gauze and fabric. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,537 to Graham, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses burn dressings for covering various anatomical parts. The dressings consist of a porous, multi-layer silk lining which comes into contact with the wound, and a multi-layer gauze backing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,465 to Cherio et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a bandage in the form of a vest having two short sleeves. The bandage consists of a net-like material that holds gauze in place over the wound.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,449 to Andrews et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a wound dressing in the shape of a glove having a porous skin-contacting layer, an absorbent intermediate layer, and an outer layer formed of a water-proof breathable material.
While both gel materials and dressing garments have been used for many years in the treatment of burns and other wounds, to date, no known attempts have been made to develop a dressing garment that employs a skin-contacting gel material. This may be due in part to the fact that sheet-like, gel-based dressings are rather thick, heavy and awkward in comparison to the thin, lightweight, fabric-like materials conventionally used to form dressing garments, and the appearance and gummy, resilient feel of such bulky gel-based dressing sheets do not readily suggest the fashioning of garments from these dressings. The fact that sheet-like, gel-based dressings are conventionally applied via adhesion to a limited skin area, rather than as an enclosure that surrounds or drapes over a body part, further contributes to the perception that sheet-like, gel-based dressings do not lend themselves to use in garments and that these dressings may be ill-suited and impractical for such applications.
Moreover, sheet-like, gel-based dressings are functionally unrelated to conventional burn garments. Sheet-like, gel-based dressings are substantially impermeable to air and moisture, and have limited or no absorbency. The gel material is designed to essentially seal the wound and functions substantially as a synthetic layer of skin over the wound, preventing any external interaction. In contrast, conventional burn garments are formed of permeable, absorbent materials that remove and absorb fluids exuded from the wound. Unlike a synthetic skin, such garments function more as a separate, external covering that rests over the wound and encourages healing of the wound by permitting a controlled flow of air to the wound and a controlled removal of fluid from the wound.
These structural and functional differences between sheet-like, gel-based dressings and conventional burn garments would explain, at least in part, why these wound treatments have existed side-by-side in the field for years without any consideration of possible applications of gel materials in garment-like dressings.
In addition, the healing process and user comfort may be enhanced by warming the gel material (e.g., to temperatures at or near body temperature) and applying the warmed gel material to the skin or wound. However, the above-described related art devices do not provide a manner to thermally treat and control temperature of the gel material, thereby limiting the healing potential of the garments and/or dressings and providing a level of discomfort to the user.